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3084 was a project space in Maple Leaf Self Storage, 1818 Quebec Street, Vancouver, operating from June into July 2009.

The commercial self-storage facility is a proliferating accessory to contemporary lifestyles, displacing the pressures of material accumulation while extending the reach and complexity of its underlying counter currents – freedom and dependence. Complicating the dialectics of waste and conservation, the figure of commodified storage space testifies to the enchantments of objects – forces of material-social agency we invest, extract, resist and obey; to the multilateral power-relations of possession; and to the tensions arising from questions of need, desire and responsibility. In this light, commercial self-storage can be seen as a charged space through which to approach practices of material production and issues of materiality: a space to frame and be framed by notions of material culture, subjectivity and their interrelations. 3084 is an example of such space and was established as a facility for this approach.

The project enabled the short-term storage of materialised ideas / ideated materials by a selection of artists based in Vancouver. Comprising five shows in as many weeks, spectatorship was structured by one 60-minute ‘open storage’ event per show, and the negotiation of attendance by appointment. Within the frame of commercial self-storage as a space of cultural complexity servicing an indeterminate spectrum of desires for material security and displacement, this challenging and idiosyncratic schedule animated a compelling program of site-based responses including sculptural and music-based installation, action and performance.